On This Day 12 November 1917 Leila Berg was born

Leila Berg (12 November 1917 – 17 April 2012) was an English children's author. She was known also as a journalist and a writer on education and children's rights.
Telegraph 6 May 2012

Leila Berg, who has died aged 94, liberated British children from the dead hand of Janet and John with her Nippers series of reading primers, and was an outspoken champion of comprehensive education.
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She lived at 25 South Side Streatham Common.

Frank Howard Kirby (1871-1956) was born On This Day 12th November 1871 in Thame, Oxfordshire and is cremated at the South London Crematorium, Streatham Park Cemetery

The son of Mr William Henry Kirby, and his wife Ada. He was educated at Alleyn’s School, Dulwich, South East London, and entered the Royal Engineers at St George’s Barracks, London, on 8th August 1892, and proceeded to South Africa with the Field Troops, Royal Engineers, on mobilization in 1899.
He served throughout the Second Boer War of 1899-1902, and was awarded the DCM for blowing up the Bloemfontein Railway in March 1900. He was then involved in an incident a few months later which would lead to the award of the Victoria Cross (London Gazette, 8th October 1900).

On the morning of the 2nd June, 1900, a party sent to try to cut the Delagoa Bay Railway were retiring, hotly pressed by very superior numbers. During one of the successive retirements of the rearguard, a man, whose horse had been shot, was seen running after his comrades. He was a long way behind the rest of his troop and was under a brisk fire. From among the retiring troop Corporal Kirby turned and rode back to the man's assistance. Although by the time he reached him they were under a heavy fire at close range, Corporal Kirby managed to get the dismounted man up behind him and to take him clear off over the next rise held by our rearguard. This is the third occasion on which Corporal Kirby has displayed gallantry in the face of the enemy.

Kirby was also mentioned several times in despatches, and in July 1900 was promoted to Troop Sergeant Major. He was invested with his Victoria Cross by the Duke of York (later King George V) at Cape Town on 19th August 1901.

In December 1906, he was promoted to Warrant Officer. In 1909 he married Kate Jolly, and they went on to have two sons and two daughters. In 1911, he was commissioned from the ranks. Promoted to Quartermaster, he was posted to the Air Battalion, Royal Engineers, at Farnborough, and in 1912 he was gazetted to the Royal Flying Corps, in which he became a Squadron Commander. He served in the Great War in France during 1916-1917, and was promoted to Captain on 1st January 1917. He was also then promoted to temporary Lieutenant-Colonel by the end of the war.

Kirby was later awarded the Commander of the British Empire, and retired to live in Kent in later life. He died at his home, 3 Crescent Road, Sidcup on 8th July 1956, aged 84. He was cremated at South London Crematorium, Streatham, and his ashes were scattered in the Main Garden. His medals were purchased in a private sale by the Ashcroft Trust in 2003, and are displayed in the Imperial War Museum.
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LOCATION OF MEDAL: LORD ASHCROFT GALLERY, IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM, LONDON.
(Source VC-online)

On This Day 11 November 1884 Henry Leifchild died at home 15 Kirkstall Road

Leifchild, Henry Stormonth (1823–1884), sculptor, born in Moorgate, London, was the fourth son of William Gerard Leifchild of Moorgate and The Elms, Wanstead, Essex, and nephew of John Leifchild DD. He married Marion, daughter of Henry Clarke of King Street, Covent Garden, London; they had no children. He studied from 1844 at the Royal Academy Schools, and from 1848 to 1851 in Rome. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1844, sending The Mother of Moses Leaving him on the Banks of the Nile.
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At the Great Exhibition of 1851 he exhibited his statue, Rispah Watching over the Dead Bodies of her Sons, and that, like his later groups Bacchus Awakening Ariadne, The Torchbearers, Minerva Repressing the Wrath of Achilles, Lot's Wife, and Wrecked, besides various busts, attracted favourable attention.

He was the successful competitor for the guards' memorial at Chelsea Hospital in London. Seven models in plaster of his most important works were presented by his widow and family to the Castle Museum in Nottingham, all but one of which were destroyed by a curator before 1929. He is today best-known for the Robertson mausoleum (c.1867) in Warriston cemetery, Edinburgh.
(L. H. Cust and Christopher Whitehead)

(Image 1- ArtUk) A heroic seated figure of Erinna, dated 1860, is at the Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, Egham, Surrey. Leifchild resided most of his life in Stanhope Street, Regent's Park, London, and died on 11 November 1884 at 15 Kirkstall Road, Streatham Hill, London. He was multitalented, excelling not only in his profession but also as a draughtsman, carver, and musician.

(Image 2- source ArtUK ) James Baldwin Brown of 7 Paragon and Leifchild's brother in law

On This Day 10th November 1959 Lupino Lane died

Lupino Lane (16 June 1892 – 10 November 1959) was an English actor and theatre manager, and a member of the famous Lupino family, which included his niece, the screenwriter/director/actress Ida Lupino who was brought top ing Streatham

He is best known for playing Bill Snibson in the play and film Me and My Girl, which popularised the song and dance routine "The Lambeth Walk".

He directed and starred in many silent movies which best displayed his talents as an accomplished acrobat. After appearing in such classic movies as "Isn’t Life Wonderful?" (1924), "Maid In Morocco" (1925), and "The Love Parade" (1929), he went on to direct a number of British musicals in the 1930s. Lupino Lane also achieved success in the US as the star of the Broadway hit "Afgar" (1920-22).

He was the subject of This Is Your Life in March 1956 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at London's BBC Television Theatre. He also appeared as the castaway on Desert Island Discs in 1957.
Lane died on 10 November 1959, in London, at age 67. He is buried at Streatham Park Cemetery. His wife, Violet Blythe, died 17 March 1983, aged 93.
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A commemorative blue plaque was erected to Lupino Lane on 15 June 2014 at his former home 32 Maida Vale, Paddington, by The Music Hall Guild of Great Britain and America.

William Claude Rains was born On This Day 10 November 1889 A British-American actor born in Clapham who in 1919 was recorded living at 15 Valley Road.
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He taught at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. Young and eager Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud were perhaps his best known students.

On This Day 9th November 1927 Campbell Mackenzie-Richards was killed

Campbell Mackenzie-Richards (1900–1927) was a pioneer English aviator, Royal Air Force test pilot, and air race contestant, who was killed testing experimental equipment in November 1927.
Campbell MacKenzie-Richards was born on 6 January 1900 in Streatham (1901 census) and the family lived at 4 Clapham Mansions, the grandson of Peter Felix Richards (born 1808 in Edinburgh), the founder of the Astor House, Shanghai; and the son of Peter Felix Mackenzie-Richards ( a civil engineer) and Mary Edith "Mollie" McRae
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MacKenzie-Richards was killed in a night flying accident at East Grinstead, Surrey on 9 November 1927. MacKenzie-Richards was engaged in testing night navigating devices at Croydon aerodrome, including two new illuminated wind vanes erected there experimentally.

Tom Costello (born Thomas Costello, 30 April 1863 – 8 November 1943) was a music hall comedian and singer.
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He died 8 November 1943 and is buried at Streatham Park Cemetery